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Virginia wants to put PETA shelter out of business after it snatched a chihuahua from a porch and killed ithttp://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/24/virginia-wants-to-put-peta-shelter-out-of-business-after-it-snatched-a-chihuahua-from-a-porch-and-killed-it/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/24/virginia-wants-to-put-peta-shelter-out-of-business-after-it-snatched-a-chihuahua-from-a-porch-and-killed-it/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 17:23:08 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=705723

RICHMOND, Va. — A seemingly slight tweak to the Virginia state code has animal welfare organizations attacking each other with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — and its record on euthanization — at the heart of the fight.

PETA operates a large shelter at its headquarters in Norfolk, where, every year, the vast majority of cats and dogs taken in are killed. The shelter came under fire last fall after it euthanized a pet chihuahua that was inexplicably snatched from owner Wilbur Zarate’s porch by a PETA contractor in the Eastern Shore.

So the timing was perfect for a bill put forward by Senator William J. Stanley, defining a private animal shelter as “operating for the purpose of finding permanent adoptive homes.” Under the current code, that description is only one of several that can describe a shelter.

Supporters say the bill just clarifies the law — but makes it harder for organizations such as PETA to euthanize animals without first taking steps to find them new homes.

“It’s just impossible to consider that they are making an attempt to adopt out animals with that failure record,” said Debra Griggs of the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies.

In 2014, according to state reports, PETA took in 2,631 cats and dogs. All but 307 were euthanized. The proposal codifies what “all shelters in Virginia are already doing,” she said, — “except for PETA.”

According to PETA supporters, however, the proposal is about something bigger. They believe their opponents seized on the case of the pet chihuahua to push a “no-kill” policy — avoiding euthanasia for abandoned animals under any circumstances — on to all private shelters.

At the heart of the conflict is a philosophical disagreement about the most humane way to manage unwanted pets.

“The PETA screwup came at a convenient time and is being used as a Trojan horse to ship the no-kill movement into Virginia,” said one longtime lobbyist on animal issues who asked not to be identified while representing an organization that is neutral on the bill.

They want no impediment to their killing…. PETA is a huge, rich, mean bully

The no-kill movement, if required at all shelters, would prompt “a retreat to 1850, where you drown them in the creek, shoot them in the head or just let them starve to death,” said Sharon Adams, who led the Virginia Beach SPCA for over two decades. She now works for the Virginia Alliance for Animal Shelters, which opposed the bill.

In addition to the proposed legislation, advocates of no-kill policies have asked state regulators for a new rule requiring animal shelters to keep records of when, how and why each animal was taken in and when and why it was killed.

PETA would not comment while the legislation is still pending. On their website, they say they take unadoptable animals that no other shelter wants and put them out of their misery.

“Because of the high number of unwanted companion animals and the lack of good homes, sometimes the most humane thing that a shelter worker can do is give an animal a peaceful release,” the organization says. They lament that “this selfish desire to possess animals and receive love from them … has created an overpopulation crisis.”

“They make no effort to get them adopted, and they are wild now at the suggestion that maybe they should even try,” wrote Richmond SPCA CEO Robin Starr in a blog post.

“They want no impediment to their killing…. PETA is a huge, rich, mean bully.”

Several shelter leaders say PETA’s objections to the proposed legislation and regulation are unfounded, although the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services told lawmakers the bill could cause private shelters to stop taking in challenging animals. In that case, officials said, municipal shelters could be forced to deal with more strays.

“My colleagues in the state and the region don’t see this as a threat at all,” said Tawny Hammond, who leads Fairfax’s public animal shelter and views the bill as a “clarification” that won’t hurt any facility aiming to find most animals homes. “I don’t see this as dumping an undue burden on any organization and community.”

Overall, a quarter of the animals taken in by Virginia county shelters last year were euthanized, a far lower rate than at PETA’s facility.

I think it’s important the public know that PETA is not a private animal shelter that finds forever homes for these animals, but rather puts them down

The legislation passed the Senate with only five dissenting votes and the House with only two. The bill was softened in the House to take out a line requiring shelters to”facilitat(e) other lifesaving outcomes” for abandoned animals.

“It does not change the essence of the bill,” said Stanley, who owns three rescue dogs and one rescue cat. “I think it’s important the public know that (the PETA facility) is not a private animal shelter that finds forever homes for these animals, but rather puts them down.”

The only point on which anyone agrees is that the issue has ripped apart a community that used to work together.

“There’s a lot of rancor,” said Dana Meeker, president of the SPCA of Northern Virginia.

“There are other things we could have spent time on, but there was a lot of ill feeling towards that organization this year.”

Alberta’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says it’s investigating allegations of abuse at a hog facility in Red Deer.

An animal rights group has released a video taken at the Western Hog Exchange facility that shows hogs being kicked and struck with what appears to be a club.

Mercy for Animals Canada says the video was taken undercover and it also shows some of the animals limping and others crammed into a corral.

In a statement, Alberta SPCA spokesman Roland Lines says the video he has viewed is very disturbing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ICW-oPuWE8&w=640&h=390]

The Western Hog Exchange has posted a statement on its website saying it has also launched an independent investigation with third-party experts in animal care and transportation.

Chairman Brent Moen says he viewed the footage last month, and what he saw strays far from its standards.

“Many of the images we saw on the video were shocking and disturbing, and they are not in keeping with the animal care training and policies in place at WHE,” Moen said in the statement.

Mercy For Animals Canada has issued a statement calling for federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz to modernize outdated livestock transport regulations in order to prevent abuse. The group calls Canada’s regulations the worst in the western world.

The group says the video was shot over a period of 10 weeks between May and August of this year.

Stan was a true extrovert, a real smooth operator with keen political instincts and the kind of good looks and personality that made him hard to resist.

If Stan wanted something, say a stuffed animal to gnaw on or a leg to nuzzle against or a warm lap to crawl into, he simply went for it. And if he liked something, say a good hard belly rub or a tasty treat, he would purr his appreciation, in ever increasing volume, the unspoken message being: Don’t stop. Please give me more.

And, of course, that is what Stan did. He gave the people more, because Stan was not just any Halifax cat; he was the Halifax cat known worldwide as Tuxedo Stan, the handsome kitty who ran, although he never technically registered since cats can’t actually register on the ballot, for mayor in the city’s October, 2012, election.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYRz-syYG-g&w=640&h=390]

Anderson Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres publicly endorsed his candidacy. Sky News Arabia, an all-Arabic-speaking news channel, carried news of his mayoral bid to the Middle East. The Internet swooned for Stan. He was a global star, and he died Sunday of kidney cancer after a nine-month illness.

Hugh ChisholmTuxedo Stan when he was still a kitten.

Tuxedo Stan was three years old.

“I knew Stan from the day he was born,” says his owner, Dr. Hugh Chisholm, the Halifax-area veterinarian who adopted Stan as a kitten. “He was a real bright light, and when I saw that and saw his stunning good looks I said ‘Enough — I am bringing him home with me.’”

Stan exhibited an intense curiosity from an early age. When Dr. Chisholm and his wife, Kathy, brought home the groceries he would burrow into the bags and boxes. The couple lives on a large property with a fenced-in backyard. They jokingly refer to it as Catopia. Stan was mayor of this domain until municipal politics came knocking.

FacebookTuxedo Stan had more than 17,500 followers on Facebook at the time of his death.

An acquaintance suggested that their handsome charismatic cat should run for office to draw awareness to Halifax’s feral cat problem.

“A group of five of us formed the Tuxedo Party, and then it became this crazy experience where Stan became an international star,” says Dr. Chisholm.

“He has over 17,000 followers on Facebook — on every continent, except Antarctica. And I would say 90% of his fan base was female. Cats seem to appeal to the ladies.”

And famous cats can get results, even when they don’t get elected. Halifax city council provided a $40,000 grant to the local SPCA in Tuxedo Stan’s name in the months after the election to help establish a low cost spay and neuter clinic.

Hugh ChisholmTuxedo Stan sits in his front yard in Hubley, N.S. ("enjoying the garden in Catopia," according to his owner, Hugh), in this undated handout photo. The cat who gained worldwide attention when he ran for mayor of Halifax, Nova Scotia died of kidney cancer.

“Stan was a true politician,” Dr. Chisholm says. “He lived up to his promises.”

And then in January he got sick. Cancer. Tuxedo Stan was not going to win this fight.

“He died peacefully,” Dr. Chisholm says. “He was sitting in my wife’s lap. She had his favourite mat, a rainbow rug he used to like to lay on by our door, and so he lay on the mat on her lap.

“We wanted Stan to be outside, to be in Catopia. It was raining out and so we were sitting beneath our covered deck. I actually administered the euthanasia injection myself.

“It was extremely hard to say goodbye to Stan. He was a very special cat.”

In the last year Canada has seen mayors slapped with corruption accusations and gangsterism charges. One was linked to a crack-smoking video. Another quit in a sex scandal.

Now one says he kills kittens.

The mayor of Huntingdon, Que., Stephane Gendron, has been forced to apologize for joking about how he enthusiastically kills cats with his car — even newborns.

The small-town mayor, whose other career is radio shock-jock, has posted a letter on the website of his show explaining that his “dark humour” had done nothing to raise the level of debate over animal control.

When I see a cat in the street, I accelerate

“When I see a cat in the street, I accelerate,” Gendron had said, days earlier, on his radio show.

“Stray cats have no business on the street,” he said, raising his voice to a shout for dramatic emphasis: “So bang! I accelerate.”

He didn’t stop there.

“The other day I backed up over a newborn and I’m sure it didn’t feel a thing,” Gendron said.

One of his fellow hosts called his comments, “Sick,” while another compared such actions to the alleged behaviour of Luka Rocco Magnotta.

Gendron’s statement of apology came after the SPCA said it had opened an investigation into the mayor, whose town of 2,450 is between Montreal and the New York State border.

Gendron has spoken before about the problem of stray animals. His town council recently adoped a bylaw requiring sterilization of all cats.

In his statement, Gendron said smaller communities don’t have animal shelters and euthanizing every stray at the vet is unaffordable. He said the proliferation of cats on his own property has become a big problem.

While the statement does offer an apology, and it refers to dark humour, it never actually states categorically whether he was telling the truth on the air.

The use of dark humour was inappropriate in dealing with such a subject

“On July 9, 2013, I made largely exaggerated comments on the overpopulation of cats that constitutes a nuisance in our urban and rural areas,” Gendron’s statement said.

“I myself have to deal with this problem on my property, with many dozens of stray cats that come and cause problems.

“I admit that the imagery used served no purpose in advancing the debate on this issue… For all these reasons, I apologize. The use of dark humour was inappropriate in dealing with such a subject.”

The SPCA says that in its investigation it’s now looking for people who might have evidence to support the claims the mayor initially made on the air.

“(We’re) obviously shocked and horrified to hear something like that – coming from anybody, but particularly from someone like that who has a platform,” said SPCA Montreal spokeswoman Alanna Devine.

THE GAZETTE/John KenneyHuntingdon Mayor Stéphane Gendron in studio of 98.5 f.m. in 2007 for the regular broadcast of his show. Gendron has spoken before about the problem of stray animals. His town council recently adoped a bylaw requiring sterilization of all cats.

“Someone who has a radio show and who is an elected public official — (we’re) absolutely horrified.”

She called the case a “priority.”

Devine said police have not been contacted yet as the SPCA has special constables with law-enforcement power who can open the investigation.

She said that, even if it turns out Gendron was making up the story as a joke, it’s still “unacceptable and totally horrendous nonetheless.”

Gendron has frequently stirred controversy with comments on a variety of topics in the past, aired on different media platforms over the years.

Last year, he apologized for calling Israel an apartheid state that doesn’t deserve to exist.

He was once removed from television by a now-defunct network for making controversial comments that resulted in numerous complaints.

A call to Gendron was not immediately returned Sunday.

Quebec, in particular, has had numerous mayoral scandals this year — which have led to four resignations in Montreal and next-door Laval.

Most recently, the interim mayor of Laval announced he was stepping down — just six hours after he publicly declared he would stay on despite a controversy allegedly involving extortion and a prostitute.

That interim mayor had replaced the long-ruling Gilles Vaillancourt, who was slapped with a number of criminal charges including two counts of gangsterism. Police allege Vaillancourt ran city hall as a money-scheming criminal organization.

Associated PressMonty the Dog enjoying one of life's simple pleasures in his modified Mini.

It took weeks of training indoors teaching them how to change gears, brake and steer, but a New Zealand SPCA has taught three dogs how to drive a car.

Now, the canines have finally been allowed behind the wheel of a real car — with a little help from their handlers.

Associated PressIt took them five weeks to get to a point where they were ready to drive even a fake car.

The effort comes via The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Auckland, which is using the unusual spectacle as way to show the intelligence of rescued dogs.

Auckland’s SPCA has been having trouble finding homes for the dogs it rescues — a common situation for animal charities around the world.

Associated PressMark Vette, a man with interesting hobbies.

The three clever canines — Monty, Ginny and Porter — were picked out and taught by trainer Mark Vette.

“No animal has ever driven a car before so what we’re going to do is we’re going to do a straight and we’re going to head off, so we’ll start the car, get into position, brake on, gear in place, back onto the steering wheel, accelerator, take off and hoon along the straight and then stop,” he told New Zealand’s TV3.

Associated PressDecember 10 will be Monty's moment of truth, when he's tested on national TV.

It took Vette and the dogs months before they got up to speed — but now they’re ready for their big test. Next Monday, Monty the dog will go on national TV to show off his skills.